Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event, Dec 13: Back in 2008, we used to talk about this being a historic moment for America, that we were at a crossroads in our history. Well, we haven’t fully crossed the road, and in some ways, 2012 is even more important than it was four years ago. The choices could not be starker. The vision about where we want to take the country could not be more different.

I gave a speech in Kansas last week where I talked about where we need to go as a country; a country that’s based on everybody having a fair shot, a country that depends on everybody doing their fair share, a country where fair play applies across the board….

…. And that vision, in contrast to a vision that basically says you are on your own, is what this election was about in 2008; it’s what this election is going to be about in 2012. I am confident that the vision that we believe in so deeply and that we’ve worked so hard for is the vision that is truest to our history and most representative of the core decency of the American people.

But we’re going to have to fight for it. It’s not a slam-dunk. We’re going to have to deliver this message effectively all across the country….

All of the things that we’ve done over the last three years – to rescue the economy and rescue the auto industry, and end the war in Iraq and end “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and make sure that health care is in place, and financial reform brings back some integrity to the financial sector – all those things don’t mean that much to somebody if they’re still out of work right now, or their house is still underwater by $100,000.

So, yeah, this is going to be tough. But I just want to remind all of you that you didn’t decide to support Barack Hussein Obama because it was going to be easy. There were always easier choices to make, just as there would have been easier political choices for me to make. We took a flyer on this thing because we believe passionately in an America in which everybody is getting ahead.

That’s worth fighting for. And here’s my message to you. If you guys stick with this, if you don’t falter, if you stay steady, we are going to win this thing. We are going to win this thing, and America is going to win as a consequence.

AP: Australia’s prime minister said Wednesday that President Barack Obama impressed her as a “good person” through his acknowledgment of attendants and security staff during his recent visit to Australia.

“I always think the way you can best judge people’s attitudes is not necessarily how they treat me, the prime minister of Australia, but how you see them interact with others, and as President Obama moved through Parliament House, he said hello to every attendant and every security guard he walked past.”

“He doesn’t have to do that – nothing makes him do that except being a good person,” she said.

…. Gillard described him as charming, with a “fabulous, high-voltage smile.” “The private person is very like the public person – very calm, very measured person, very intelligent, casual in a way,” she said.

“Clearly being president of the United States comes with all of this machinery and prestige, but in the middle of that, he is actually one-to-one in his reaction with people a very casual person,” Gillard said.

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Oh, any excuse:

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Wednesday:

10:05: The President and First Lady depart the White House en route to Joint Base Andrews

OFA: Yesterday, four Republicans in the New Hampshire State House allowed a hearing requested by Orly Taitz, the notorious dentist-lawyer-birther who wants President Obama officially removed from the state’s primary ballot.

So in honor of conspiracy theorists everywhere, we’re re-releasing the campaign’s limited-edition “Made in the USA” mugs.

There’s clearly nothing we can do to satisfy this crowd – or anyone else who insists on wasting time and energy on nonsense like this.

But when it starts to make your head hurt, I’ve found the best remedy is to have some tea in my “Made in the USA” mug.

**** Thanks to ChristiMtl for the link to Emilia’s post on Chris Matthews (here) – she says it all. ****

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Tommy Christopher (Mediaite): Michael Moore Goes The Full Wingnut On President Obama Over Occupy ‘Crackdown’

This week began with a series of raids on Occupy movement encampments across the country … Filmmaker Michael Moore responded by accusing President Obama, via Twitter, of giving the “green light” for the raids. It’s just the latest in a series of unhinged attacks, on the President, by Moore….

…. At the time he made the accusation, there was absolutely no evidence to support it … The whole thing is so tin-foil ridiculous….What’s truly mystifying, though, is Michael Moore’s desperation to attack President Obama …. it’s rare that a liberal outpaces the most rabid of right-wing fabricators to do so.

…. this is just the culmination of a series of unhinged anti-Obama attacks by Moore … Perhaps most tellingly, though, he appeared on The View in September to express his “disappointment” with President Obama by saying, “Bill Maher had a good answer when he said that Obama was half white and half black. He said I went to the polls and I voted for the black guy and what we got was the white guy.”

…. A blogger at AngryBlackLady.com notes Moore’s curious obsession with “the white vote” in a talk he gave earlier this month. He told the crowd, “The only reason Obama won was because of 18 to 29 year olds,” and went on to explain that this was the only age group in which a majority of whites voted for Barack Obama….

….. It’s time that Michael Moore, and some of the others who are disillusioned with President Obama, think about what role his race plays in the ways in which they criticize him.

President Barack Obama stands with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his wife Kristiani Herawati during a family photo before the East Asia Summit Gala dinner in Nusa Dua, on the island of Bali

President Obama and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono talk as Balinese dancers perform on stage at the East Asia Summit dinner

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What a beautiful difference five years makes. Just sayin':

President George W. Bush chats with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of the Asian-Pacific leaders meeting in Hanoi, 19 November 2006.

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President Obama speaks after announcing a commercial deal between Boeing and Indonesia’s Lion Air at a signing ceremony in Nusa Dua, on the island of Bali, Indonesia.

Boeing and Lion Air have reached agreement on the purchase of 201 Boeing 737MAX and 29 Next Generation 737ER aircraft. The order will support over 110,000 U.S. jobs at Boeing and at suppliers in 43 states. This represents one of the largest trade deals between the United States and Indonesia in history….

Boeing and Singapore Airlines have reached agreement on the purchase of eight Boeing 777-300ER widebody aircraft with a total list price value of $2.4 billion, $2 billion in U.S. export content and supporting an estimated 11,000 U.S. jobs….

The Hill: A senior military official says U.S. forces soon will begin winding down counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan, signaling a major shift in the decade-old conflict.

U.S. forces are working to “set the conditions” for Afghan government officials and security forces to assume control of key provinces by next fall as American troops begin to exit, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos told The Hill.

NYT: Chrysler said Wednesday that it would add 1,100 jobs at a sport utility vehicle plant here as it spends $1.7 billion developing new models for its Jeep brand.

…. Chrysler is one of several carmakers adding large numbers of jobs in the United States after years of steep employment declines in the auto industry. On Thursday, Toyota is scheduled to begin production at a new plant in Mississippi that will employ about 2,000 people.

The mayor of Toledo, Mike Bell, described Chrysler’s announcement as “the equivalent of a blood transfusion” for this heavily industrial city along the Michigan border.

FactCheck: Republican presidential candidates Rick Perry and Mitt Romney both claim President Barack Obama said that “Americans are lazy.” He didn’t. To the contrary, Obama has consistently and repeatedly praised American workers as the “most productive in the world,” a bit of boosterism he has repeated dozens of times. His recent words — “we’ve been a little bit lazy, I think, over the last couple of decades” – actually referred to collective efforts to promote foreign investment in the U.S., and not to American workers or voters as individuals. Perry and Romney simply rip those words out of their context in order to mislead.

Washington Post: A think tank founded by GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich collected at least $37 million over the past eight years from major health-care companies and industry groups, offering special access to the former House speaker and other perks, according to records and interviews.